They never really stopped being irrelevant.
They never really stopped being irrelevant.
Well, irrelevant in the sense that they are outclassed by the enemies Ichigo faces to the point where they might as well just not be there.
That's hard to judge so far, because thus far, the only villains in this arc are Tsukishima and his lackey. And the lackey at least doesn't seem like he'd be stronger than Chad.